Having tackled one iconic entertainment industry figure in Hitchcock, writer John McLaughlin and producer Tom Thayer are moving on to another. The pair have struck a deal with the estate of Johnny Carson for a biopic about the late Tonight Show host, based on the Bill Zehme biography Carson The Magnificent: An Intimate Portrait.

Even longtime fans of Carson may find that the film reveals a side of him they never knew. For all his gregariousness in front of the camera, the host was notoriously private off-camera. More details after the jump.

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After the long Fourth of July weekend we don’t have a lot of news on the casting front, but there are a few good stories to share, and they’re all in a similar vein. Today, the theme is crime pictures. After the break you’ll find info on the following:

John Malkovich is taking the lead in Siberian Education, which chronicles the culture of crime in a small community near the Ukraine.

Parker, the new screen version of Richard Stark’s classic crime character, gets two supporting players.

And French film The Lookout casts Daniel Auteuil as a cop out to catch a sharpshooter who ruined a well-laid police plan. Read More »

Jennifer Lopez is making her way back to movie screens in a big way. She’ll recently showed up in The Back-Up Plan, will voice a character in Ice Age: Continental Drift, and now she’s in talks for two roles: one in What to Expect When You’re Expecting (more on that in a different article) and one in Taylor Hackford‘s Parker, which is set to starJason Statham as the character created by Donald Westlake (under his penname Richard Stark) in the novel The Hunter. Read More »

After The Fountain failed to perform at the box office (likely due to marketability), I was worried that Hollywood might have lost faith in writer/director Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream). Good thing that isn’t true, because Aronofsky will prove himself as one of the best filmmakers of our generation, I’m sure of this. Aronofsky is doing post production on The Wrestler, and is set to go into the ring with Mark Wahlberg in The Fighter.

And now AMC has hired Aronofsky to develop a new drama series called Riverview Towers. The show will revolve around a family that moves into an apartment building with paranormal activity. Sounds intriguing. Unfortunately Aronofsky doesn’t have the time to pen the pilot teleplay himself, and the network has hired John J. McLaughlin, who wrote Aronofsky’s upcoming film Black Swan. Aronofsky will serve as executive producer. Patty Jenkins (Monster) is in talks to direct should the pilot get picked up.